This spoiler was originally compiled by Jack Angert, and published Wednesday, the 18th of January 1995.
Additions, corrections, and HTML lay-out provided by Boudewijn Waijers, originally published Monday, the 13th of February 1995.
Well, it's finally here... the unofficial (but only one I know of) Ragnarok FAQ and Spoilers document. Originally compiled by Jack Angert, I edited the entire document in WordPerfect 6.0 and scanned the net for even more spoilers and tips to add. The most important change to version 1.01 of this document however is that I did not leave the tips in the same random order, but sorted them by topic. For this, I used the same structure as in the official Ragnarok manual, that is distributed in Word format in the original distribution, and in WordPerfect 6.0 and ASCII format on the ftp site mentioned below.
Many sections of this FAQ document are either non-existent or very short, because some things are not or not often discussed on the net. Note that some of the tips are still in the question-and-answer format, but most others are just straight tips. Also note that a lot of things are already in the official manual, and have not been replicated in this document. You should read the official manual first, before consulting this document. Since this document has the same structure as the manual, this should be quite easy to do.
If there is anything that you would like to see added or corrected, e-mail me: bwaijers at tiscali.nl.
If you have a question about the game or about these spoiler, don't ask me! Either contact the author (see just below), or ask the newsgroup. By the way, please put "Ragnarok" in your subject line when you post an article, as there is no rec.games.roguelike.ragarok yet, and we are just "borrowing" the newsgroup until a new one is possibly started.
One of the shorter sections mentioned above is the "contributors" section. Jack basically ripped everything straight out of posts and e-mail to him, but forgot to record the names of the ones who posted or mailed the tip. So, if you think to yourself "Hey, didn't I write something like that?", please let me know and I'll add you to the list below.
Jack Angert *
Sven
Birke
Thomas Boyd, who has an alternative address *
+
Mark Andrew
Bradburn
Jeffrey A.
Goodson
Heiko Herold *
Scott G. Leyh
Di Michelson
Michael Smith
Ritvaliisa
Snellman
Richard W. *
Boudewijn Waijers: bwaijers at tiscali.nl *
* Major contributor to this document.
+ Ragnarok's author: contact him if you have any ideas for
improvement, or if you have bug reports.
You can get the game at any one of the two following ftp sites:
www.theboyds.com,
directory: ragnarok.
ftp.win.tue.nl,
directory: /pub/games/ragnarok.
If you ftp to the latter site, please be considerate and try to limit the time you are connected. If possible, don't ftp in business hours during local time (note that the site is located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands).
Question: What do you get for the extra $10 when you
register?
Answer: A strategy guide that contains every spoiler
fact. Well, okay, I missed one once, and it is a useful one, but
still, it's pretty complete.
Question: Could you please convert Ragnarok to
Macintosh, UNIX, Amiga, Atari, Timex Sinclair, NeXT, CRAY YMP-1,
PET, TRS-80, UniFLEX Power-Abacus, PDP-11, ...?
Answer: I would love to do conversions, but lack the equipment. I
have a kernel that can easily be transplanted into another set of
graphics or text drivers, but have only limited access to anything
but an IBM-PC. Some people have suggested I use Linux, but I cannot
afford to buy it (I actually do not know how much it costs, but
let's just say I am getting really creative with top
ramen right now). I will do these conversions if interest prevails
and if I can obtain the equipment I need.
To get Hela to be reasonable and accept Thokk's soul in return for Balder's, you should meet her in Niflheim. To get Balder's soul back, wear the ring of soul keeping, and stand one square away from Hela. Hela is usually in Niflheim. When the final battle starts, she zooms to Asgard, and is no longer in the mood to deal for Balder's soul. You must go to Niflheim first.
As for the ring of soul trapping, there is't anything you can do with the souls in the ring: it is just for when you get to Thokk, the giant who's soul you need. The quest involving the ring is normally the first quest you start, and the last one you finish. You can only hold one soul in the ring at a time. If you have Thokk in the ring, and you kill anything else while wearing it... goodbye Thokk. You must take it off immediately after you get her soul. Then, save the ring with her soul in it for Niflheim, a level you will not want to visit too early. Any other souls in the ring are useless. In fact, there is a feature of the game where you can gain energy by absorbing the souls of the dead, if you are not wearing the ring. So, it is best only to wear it to harvest Thokk's soul.
To return the godly items to the gods, you must go to Vigrid.
When you arrive at Vigrid, you should be carrying Odin's
spear, Freya's sword, and Heimdall's horn. Then, wander off
the right edge of Asgard. The gods, giants, etc. will be in combat.
Give them their items. Stay away from the unfriendly folks. After
giving up the items, just wait around in a safe corner and
you'll be done.
At the bottom right of the 3rd dungeon level is a giant shop. A scroll of transport will get you there (and out of there). Make sure you have lots of money when you go down (maybe kill an ordinary shopkeeper to quickly accumulate cash).
Beware the ocean. Do not leave the ocean screen to either the North, South, East, or West: It is very difficult to kill the serpent.
You might find it amusing to go up the stairs into Odin's Hall. Lots of cool potions, scrolls and other items are there for the taking.
There is one realm that can only be reached through dimension travelling and several attempts...
Dimension travelling will take you to almost any plane from the Crossroads, depending on what color you're standing in. Use teleport combined with locus mastery to move around in the Crossroads.
In the Crossroads, Azare's plane can be reached via the yellow color (I think). In Azare's plane, there are pools corresponding to different potion colors (foul, bubbly, etc). Bring your empty flasks to Azare's Plane for abundant potions of whatever variety. Knowing potion colors can be really useful if you ever get to Azare's Plane: write them down.
Someone reported that he teleported through a vortex and ended up being given 450 points of damage by some critter. The vortex is a trap, but easy to get out of. Step back into it to go home.
If you fall into a pit, if you have no grappling hook, you can still get out, but it is cumbersome. Keep trying to get out, the grappling hook just gets you out instantly. You can still use wands and missiles, but you cannot fight while in a pit.
There are seven powerful items, like the amulet of might, the amulet of ethereality, the Norse boots, etc., that you do not need to finish your quests, but which are way cool and super fun. These items are hidden away neatly in several difficult-to-get-to places. To name a couple places: the Wasteland, Slaeter's Sea, Chaos. I don't think you can find all seven in a single game.
There is an artifact in Slaeter's Sea, but you have to be able to swim, or lower the tides. What also works is using Skidbladnir.
If you enchant the blue cube, it will turn into an orange cube. Some time after that, it will transport you into one of the one-square planes: the Wasteland. This area will promptly fill with lava. There is something to get there, but it will be destroyed by the lava. Dump the orange cube once you are there.
You might step through a trap that ports you to Slaeter's
Sea, a place you might like. You can kill lots of sharks and giant
squids with missile fire, while not coming too close to the shore.
A good boomerang works wonders here, but it might break.
Alternatively, find a spot where only one squid or fish can tackle
you at once, and a tenth-level character with a ring of
regeneration can do it in melee combat.
You can cheat like crazy with backup save files.
Are you tired of trudging through the forest for hours and going through the dungeon again and again, just to see if the way you thought of to avoid an instant death might work?
The save files are called RAG_SAVE.000 and SDATA.000 (for the
first saved game). When you copy them, change the name
before the period, not just the suffix, or they will still
be deleted. Alternatively, copy them to another directory.
Take your time and complete all nine forest levels before going downstairs. The forest is easy, so you may be tempted to move on prematurely. Play careful in the beginning, but don't bother spending 13 levels or so in the forest...
The dungeon is pretty good for getting much experience easily without any cheat: with a wand of displacement and a ring of locus mastery, search for a (preferably big) room containing a "summon monster" trap, and activate it: all the monsters are there, but they won't move immediately: check the type of monsters on the map and kill them if they're wimpy. If not, teleport out, into a near hallway or escape to a larger distance if they are too dangerous (return later). You might also kill them one-by-one from the door.
Use your wands scrolls and potions. There is no sense dying with a fistful of magic goodies.
In the original version of the game, there was an intended feature that was quite annoying. When you got back in the forest, suddenly enormous mobs would appear and crowd around you. You could kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill, but they kept on coming and increasing. It was very annoying. This was reported to the author, and he wrote the following:
Two people have complained of this to me. (...) This was a stupid feature we put in to encourage the user to realize that the end of the game was nigh. Also, if you return to a level after a long absence, it is overrun by creatures. In lieu of killing all of them, you can read a scroll of summoning while confused to make them all get summoned "somewhere else" (read: off the level). I am changing the swarming monster silliness.
This "feature" will thus probably be changed in a next
version.
A blessed potion of curing gets rid of just about any bad thing in your diagnostic column. Try it before asking for a cure for any malady.
Females are immune to nymphs and some other creatures that prey on men.
You can get past 18/99 strength. Just keep trying: it might take a lot of tries. Supposedly, blessed potions of strength have a better chance to raise your strength than other means.
Your morality is lowered by attacking non hostile creatures,
reading scrolls of extinction, cannibalism, etc. It is
possible to die from immorality, but you really have to try!
It is possible to change classes: you don't have to remain in the same class as the one that you started in. You have a chance to change at mastery of a class (at class level 10).
If you choose not to change classes at level 10, you get another chance later: at every ten levels. You can change back to a previously abandoned class.
Every class gets at least one special ability or skill when it reaches master level (level 10). These skills include, but are not limited to, the following:
The viking gets the skill of weapon mastery; an alchemist gets lots of recipes to create unique potions from ordinary ones.
Sages get to use their styluses. They can use it to write scrolls. Woodsmen get the terraforming ability (this allows them to change the terrain) at mastery of their craft, as well as taming and fletching. Terraforming is esoteric, but once in a while it can be very handy indeed.
Next to a new spell, the conjurer gets fennling when he reaches tenth level. Blacksmiths can finally get good use out of their equipment. They need an anvil, tongs, and some ingot on hand, and a means to produce fire (a wand of fire or heat vision). If they don't have these they "don't have the tools of the trade". They can make a runesword.
A level ten blacksmith with a runesword and mithril mail, should be pretty strong. The viking has the advantage of having lots of hit points in the beginning, which can be useful for beginners. Playing a conjurer or alchemist as starting class is discouraged for beginners, since they have few hit points and are thus quite difficult to play. The woodsman lies somewhere in between, but you should be prepared to use your missile weapons a lot.
However, most people consider the sage to be the best class. Writing almost any scroll is extremely useful. Play a sage, at least until you can write scrolls, then switch if you like. Note that this means that you have to play quite carefully in the beginning, since you won't have many hit points and your fighting abilities won't be much to talk of.
If you play a sage, at level 10 make yourself ready to kick butt by writing a bunch of extinction and blessing scrolls (and the odd scroll of alliance to pacify irate rangers). Bless your armor, weapons, and some rings of agility, and extinct the most annoying creatures. Be certain to have means to deal with rangers when you start extincting creatures: they don't like you using them. Offensive wands or scrolls of alliance are a necessity.
Change this routine the moment you get a wand of wishing: write
a scroll of blessing and one of recharging. Bless the latter. Do a
blessed recharge on the wand of wishing. Wish for a blessed scroll
of enchantment. Don't bless your weapons, armor, or rings any
more one enchantment (with luck 14) is usually anything from 7 to
30 blessings. Instead, enchant your ocarina, etc.: you will need to
enchant these eventually.
When you eat a knilb or nymph, you will pick up "intrinsic teleporting", which is impossible to get rid of, but which is by no means worse than a bit irritating. Once you get hold of a ring of locus mastery, it actually helps a lot.
Next to eating a knilb of nymph, which gets you the teleporting
"intrinsically", you can get it "temporarily"
by wearing a ring of relocation. Supposedly, intrinsic teleporting
is the only incurable condition in the game besides being just
plain dead.
Items are marked with the following letters: "b" (blessed), "c" (cursed), and "n" (normal).
You can get rid of a hexed item (armor, weapon, etc.) by simply giving it to a "loyal Norseman" NPC. This even works if you are wearing it!
A list of what items become when you enchant them - here's a start.
The potions, scrolls, rings, and wands that start out identified have descriptions associated with them as well. This may be important if you are in Azare's Plane and want to dip for potions of strength, for example.
Food is really almost never a problem, some people say. Just don't rest to regain hit points. A ring of regeneration is good, or potions of curing. Other people however invariably keep complaining about a lack of food. The author has said that a next version of the game will have more food in it.
The orange powder has a 20% chance of giving you night vision. Orange powder is a carrot extract.
Only eat green or black mushrooms. Green mushrooms add to your maximum hit points, black mushrooms do some damage, but give you temporary heat vision. Handy for blacksmiths. Unfortunately, it cannot be made permanent (psionic blast, however, is a sort of permanent intrinsic wand power). Note that it is quite hard to find enough diamond needles to make it worthwhile, though, unless you clear out Grynr.
Wraiths give experience if you eat them.
Don't eat wights. Wight bodies take half your hit points.
Eating anssks gives you sixth sense.
The only intrinsic that you can get from a monster besides sixth sense from the anssks is cold resistance from ice dragons.
Here is a clue that is missing from the official the strategy guide that you get when you pay the extra $10 when registering: keep eating urns of strength (the ones containing a green powder). Eventually, your strength will go to 19, 20, 21.
You can get an amulet of might in one of the Wasteland, Slaeter's Sea, and five other places.
Amulets of quickening turn into Eyes of Sertrud after some time, in case you were wondering where to get them. You can also find them, by the way. The Eyes of Sertrud have no powers, but can be exchanged for Mjollnir by visiting Thor: save 5 and get Mjollnir somewhere in Grynr. To get them, put the Eyes in pits in the ground in the Halls of Grynr.
According to the manual, the wearer of an amulet of eternal life "will never perish". Yes, by being turned into a statue! You may never die, but your game ends!
Identify all helmets you find until you find the dispersion helm. This is helm protects you from a zardon's psionic attack. Zardons cause massive psionic damage when you move onto a screen with them.
Scrolls of knowledge give you any random skill, even if you already have it, unless you are wearing the helm of knowledge. The helm of knowledge will try to get you a new skill, and will be successful unless you already have them all.
If you get a wand of wishing, wish for a +5 mithril mail or a +5 katana. The bonus is based on your luck: if your luck is 9, wish for a +9 katana. If you get too greedy with your wishes, you will get reamed. A shower of meteors is the sign that the wand of wishing gave you something funky.
There is a way to return to human form the (very rare) wand of restoration.
The wand of hastening improves speed for monsters only...
Although experimenting with potion mixing can be deadly, it is often fun, especially with a low-level character.
You can create the following from mixing potions:
A blessed potion of curing cures (almost?) all nasty ailments, like lycanthropy.
You might be tempted to drink your potions of constitution immediately, and get a greater hit point increase over the course of gaining levels. Alternatively, you could wait until you can bless them and get a greater effect on your constitution. The experience needed per level only grows pretty slowly: maybe roughly double or even less per ten levels. So, you'll constantly be gaining more levels. I would keep the potions around until you can bless them.
Potions of experience, when blessed, always raise you a level, until level 24 or so. Then, they just give you extra hit points. Since levels are all about the same difficulty, you may as well bless them and drink them immediately. Only on very low levels, say, in the 1-10 range, 9 and 10 do seem to be harder to get to than the very low ones, so you may want to save them at least a short while.
You can make a drinking water by standing on water and using an empty flask. Some alchemist's mixtures need water as an ingredient. Once in a while you find them, too.
You might find something called "a ring of purity and luck". This ring does not allow you to behave as badly as you want and still keep your moral standing high... Actually, it is one of the names for the ring of delusion. Another known name is the ring of luck, but it might be identified as any other ring. The ring of delusion pretends to be a real ring so well that it defies even scrolls of identification. Only the skill of identification bring these guys to light. Otherwise, you must use deductive reasoning to figure out that the ring is fake. By the way, a ring of purity and luck is always delusion.
Use a ring of locus mastery for controlling random teleports.
The ring of protection will locate traps. The percentage chance that it will find any given trap is listed when it is identified. Every step you take, every square on the lower map is checked.
Rings of regeneration are cumulative.
The scroll of transport is mega-fun. You can rob from the large bazaar in the sky, but it is very hard.
Blessed scrolls of cartography will light up all traps on a level too.
You only get one scroll of "switch bodies" per game.
Hold onto a scroll of traveling to get out of jams.
Get confused (via a dead bat or a potion of mead) and read a scroll of blessing. It will bless many of your potions and scrolls at once. Don't use the newly blessed scrolls until you're sober though! Confused scroll reading is unpredictable.
A scroll of travelling will get you into the Halls of Grynr; if you read it while confused, standing on the banks of the River Gioll. The glass ocarina lists that destination as "elsewhere". Maybe if you finished the Halls (where the Eyes of Sertrud go), "elsewhere" would be somewhere more interesting.
Blessed scrolls of identification identify your entire inventory
Scrolls of trap creation are fun: the traps you create are seen by you, but not by monsters: they will blunder into the traps, looking for you. Be careful with traps, though. Frost traps can destroy your potions. The same goes for fire traps versus scrolls. Drop your potions on an already finished level until you have found the traps, or put them in the red bag.
Confused reading of scrolls if identification masks your identity, i.e. your character's name is lost.
If you are currently working on attaining the mastery of a class, the scroll of knowledge gives you (most of) that skill. You may prefer to read these only when already a master in the class, to get a more esoteric skill like swimming or telepathy. So if you have a scroll of knowledge, when you reach level 10, you might consider not to multi-class, but to stay in your current class. When you multi-class, you'll be an apprentice in another class, so the scroll of knowledge will once again learn you something you will learn anyway.
Buy a grappling hook. You can get out of pits if you just keep trying, but grappling hooks work every time you throw them. Don't throw them towards a monster though, or it will bounce. Also, you can use it to cross rubble: a little known fact.
The black gem raises your hit points if you kill by throwing it at a monster (and are not wearing the ring of soul trapping).
Like the red bag, disperser helm, and a few other items, the green stone will be made once and only once per game. If you miss it, you must go back to old levels and look for it (creatures may pick it up). If you destroy it, it is gone.
The blue cube slips you backward through time, the grey cube forward.
To wield some of the artifact weapons, you need to be very strong. The amulet of might helps here. There are seven places to find the amulet of might, the amulet of ethereality, and multiple chunks of godly armor. They are hard to find, and although you can win without them, it is fun to quest for them. The first one you may stumble across in Slaeter's Sea... Places to find these "artifacts": the crypt (green stairs, hidden in the dungeons somewhere: dig around a lot), Slaeter's Sea (dry it up or be able to swim), the Wasteland (bless a cube so it's orange, drop it once you get there). Please let me know the names of the other places, how to get there, and what to do there.
You can find a runesword on the ground once in a while, or you can be a blacksmith for ten levels and make a runesword yourself. The great thing about a runesword (besides quite good damage) is that it always hits.
Get the Hela's scythe. She is in the bottom right square of Niflheim. Kill her: she's easy to kill (compared to, say, a lorkesth). That scythe kicks. It nails a hel dragon in one, maybe two swipes. Way better than Mjollnir.
Find a boomerang and enchant it way high. You'll find plenty
of critters which can't be hurt by wands: a boomerang might
help.
Ghosts: zap them with wands. Shoot them with projectiles. Alternatively, erase all files in your Ragnarok directory of the following nature: GHOST.* and GDATA.*. It is more profitable to kill them and get their goodies though.
Fylseichs: use polymorph wands on them, since anything you change them into is going to be better, and they don't resist polymorph.
Bears and other forest creatures: they are stupid. You can lose them by playing "here we go 'round the mulberry bush" with trees. Run to the shop, pick up a for-sale item and heal while the doors are closed if you need to.
A gorm also can kill you by exploding from your chest (like in the Alien movies). A blessed potion of curing would takes care of this.
Draugs: they have to be killed and their bodies destroyed: they regenerate and are difficult to kill.
Nidslacrs can be easily attacked with a wand of death for an exciting level-gaining experience.
Faleryns: easier than nidslacrs, you can just polymorph a tree in the forest, and keep killing the resulting endless supply of faleryns. You can gain dozens of levels if you're patient, sitting around fighting those tree-things.
Don't try to stone a shopkeeper. The ray will bounced and you might be petrified. Shopkeepers are wand-reflective, but very mortal. Rashok loves to kill them if you get them mad.
Wierd mists: hang out with them (wearing a ring of crystal skin) until you get a lot of extra fingers and extra eyes. Extra fingers are good for extra rings, and extra eyes may well come in handy when things start attacking by ripping out your eyes. Unfortunately, they also inflict "vertigo": you need one blessed potion of curing for every time your "brain throbs". When it is cured, your brain will throb again to tell you you are better. Another thing: it seems impossible to get more than 16 fingers. 16 fingers, plus an amulet and a full set of armor completely fill the Wear screen, and there are no scrollbars.
The archmage: whenever he "mutters a strange spell" he has completely eliminated an entire item class from the game. Kill him from afar or through blind hallways. Extincting him is highly recommended.
Weirs: you might be overcome by greed in the middle of a fight and have to sit down to count your gold pieces. Weirs cause these greed fits. Drop your gold when fighting them. Alternatively, put it in the red bag.
The vanisher: a weird death is death by "never having existed". This death is caused by a creature called a vanisher. It is invisible. It touches you, you begin to fade, you are gone.
A jagredin clears up rubble and plows paths through rock. Handy if you accidentally read a scroll of wonder. An anti-jagredin actually makes rubble.
Cockatrice (can petrify you), red ooze (eats your weapons), sentinel (if they can be genocided: they are very strong), pale moss (makes you lose your memory), sandiff (squirts acid, destroys items), ull (confuses), ruxicon (rusts your stuff), secitt (multiplies), werewolf (inflicts lycanthropy), wight (drains levels), zardon (psionic attack), archmage (destroys items permanently), vanisher (death by never existing), faleryn (after you have gained lots of levels by slaying them), weir (make you count your money in the middle of a fight: not funny if carrying 10,000+), pelgat (strong), weird fume (causes vertiginousness, wait until you have lots of eyes and fingers).
You might leave archmages alone, as they carry a lot of stuff most of the time.
Bless a scroll of summoning to summon a "greater being" to help you. If you don't specify a name, a random one is chosen. Not all of them are to be trusted, though. Some of them are dangerous, some are really helpful. Rashok can be safely summoned. Their names are consistent to their character once you figure them out.
Unfortunately, you can't control what a scroll of wonder will do, but you can also use a potion of transformation.
Nice thing to be: a swordsman. They have a speed of 40 (human=10). They also have weapons mastery.
Also good is a borgon vile. Lots of hit points. Nice innate power. You can still wear rings, armor etc. Very deadly.
If you turn into a werewolf involuntarily, a blessed potion of curing "stops the madness".
It seems that a temporary speed change, when changing bodies, is retained as permanent (is this a bug?), so you may want to be fast when doing this.